Bonus tracks, new video, a Spotify crash: Swift’s ‘Midnights’ is full of surprises
It’s a wonder that there’s any song that could be released as the first single off Swift’s next album. It features a woman who — you know what? Let’s just say it. She is as stunning as she is a singer. It’s only fitting she should be the one we get first crack at.
All too soon though it will be time to look back at the previous year’s music and wonder what might have been if, despite the year’s many ups and downs, the release schedule hadn’t been set in stone. Had the world decided to take a pause from its usual stream of pop-topped hits, pop-pop-pop, there would have been an opportunity to make some of the year’s best music.
We could have been treated to the best of what she can do in a pop song, without losing sight of what makes Swift one of the greats.
There’s a lot more to be said about the year, but let’s just start by looking back at the record year. Because as brilliant as “22” was, it felt like the year started with the release of “Look What You Made Me Do” — Swift’s first (and best) pop song in four years.
It was a year that also saw her fall in the pop world and hit a new low in a relationship with one of her most polarizing albums. “22” was a pop album at the right time, perhaps the very best pop album of the year. But it was no where near as good as what could’ve been and what she had up her sleeve.
At the start of the year, it seems like the worst would be coming. The year would lead to a breakup with one of her longest-standing relationships, which would lead to album two’s release, the return to dating “Mamma Mia,” her first real taste of fame since 2009, but then it all got much worse.
Her album debut, “Red,” was so bad, it’s almost hard to believe it was Swift’s first time doing it. So it’s almost a relief that there wasn’t any more trouble. Not to put too much stock in this, really, but she didn’t have anything else in her music that could match this performance.
She was not happy in the UK,
